1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a portable terminal with a hinge apparatus which pivotally couples a pair of housings to each other and provides two hinge axes that are different from each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, portable terminals may be classified into a bar-type terminal, a flip-type terminal and a folder-type terminal according to appearances thereof.
The bar-type terminal has a single body housing, on which data input/output units and transmitter/receiver units are arranged. Thus, this terminal is always exposing a keypad which is its data input unit, thereby being likely to be operated erroneously. Also, because a distance between the transmitter unit and receiver unit must be maintained, there is a limitation in making the bar-type terminal compactly.
The flip-type terminal has a body, a flip and a hinge module coupling the body and the flip together. In the flip-type terminal, the body has data input/output units and transmitter/receiver units arranged thereon and the flip covers a keypad used as the data input unit, thereby preventing the erroneous operation. However, this terminal is also subject to a limitation for a compact size of the terminal, because a distance between the transmitter unit and receiver unit must be maintained too.
The folder-type terminal has a body, a folder, and a hinge module pivotally coupling the body and the folder together. The folder-type terminal is opened and closed by rotating the folder, thereby preventing the erroneous operation of a keypad in standby mode in which the folder is folded onto the body. Also, the folder is unfolded in a calling mode so as to provide a sufficient distance between the transmitter unit and receiver unit. Thus, the folder-type terminal has a beneficial advantage for compactness. For this reason, the folder-type terminal gradually becomes popular.
Meanwhile, in order to meet various user preferences, a sliding-type terminal and a swing-type terminal have appeared. In particular, the sliding-type terminal is becoming more popular than the folder-type terminal.
However, since conventional portable terminals have developed to have an appearance suitable for a communication function such as a voice call, text message transmission, etc., they are inconvenient for multimedia services. For example, since the conventional portable terminals have a display device typically set to be vertically long, it is inconvenient for users to watch digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), motion picture files, etc with them.